Tech Tips and Tricks & Advice – written in plain English.

“Shadow Profiles” and “zombie apocolypse” — business as usual?

There have been several tech news headlines of late that everyone should be aware of, so you may want to “forward” (some of) these to friends and family..

You probably already know about Verizon (a cellular provider [a big one]) and the gov’t, but did you hear about Facebook’s “shadow profiles”? (if you didn’t think the Internet companies were doing this ‘profiles’ stuff, you must’ve had your head in the sand like the ostrich. It’s why it’s called “The Information Age”!)

“Facebook said Friday it fixed a bug that exposed contact info for over six million accounts. The admission revealed its ‘shadow profile’ data collection activities, and users are furious.

The personal information leaked by the bug is information that had not been given to Facebook by the users – it is data Facebook has been compiling on its users behind closed doors, without their consent.” UPDATED. Read more..

[note: If you only read one of these, read this one; and, the Comments are a good read in themselves, too .. if you’ve time. (Even better today..[Thurs]).]

• About Tech Paul

I am a (semi)-Retired CompTIA Certified computer & network technician, and the owner of Aplus Computer Aid. I have been building/fixing networks and computers since Windows 95 was the new kid on the block.

I have regularly posted how-to’s and tricks & tips and general computing advice here since 2007. (Use the Search tool to find answers.) Sometimes I answer (your) specific questions in an article if I believed the answer is generally helpful to “everyone”. All the writing you see is my own, typos and all. There is an implied “IMHO” in what you see here.
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Note: You are responsible for using this blog and its content. I am in no way liable for any losses caused by user error, viruses and/or other malware, hardware or software failure, or any other conceivable reason.

Previous Tips & Answers

Folks, this is not one of those "trick you into buying" free scans, but a scan that show what is running, and loaded to run (Startup folder, etc.). You can also click links to learn more about the files it finds. And, please, do a search before you decide something doesn't belong.

Also:

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